James is the CEO of Vibrant Cities responsible for site evaluation, acquisition, development, funding and banking relations. Additionally, James is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor and founder of multiple successful companies. As a sought after thought-leader, speaker, and writer on real estate, technology, and entrepreneurship, James has been an active real estate investor and property manager for the past 18+ years, acquiring, developing and managing over $800+ million real estate projects.

James is also the Founder and Chairman of Avidian Technologies, the creator of Prophet, the world's leading CRM software built in Outlook. Prior to Vibrant and Avidian, James was the co-founder and President of Foci Technologies (acquired by Meritage Technologies), and held positions at Arthur Andersen in New York City and Chevron Corporation in San Francisco.

James is a recipient of the NW Asian Weekly’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, Puget Sound Business Journal's “40-Under-40” award and the Small Business Association's "Minority Small Business Champion of the Year" award. James is an enthusiastic Rotarian and served on the Board of the Seattle Rotary Service Foundation. James was a board member and Chairman Emeritus of the Group Health Foundation (acquired by Kaiser). He graduated from University of Washington with a B.A. in Business Administration and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management (OPM) program.

Jena Thornton is a hospitality expert with over 25 years in the industry. During her career, Jena has been involved with over $3 billion of hotel transactions and developments in the role of owner, operator and/or developer. Prior to joining Kinzer Partners as Principal – Hospitality this year, she developed and operated several small scale hospitality projects in the Pacific NW at Eagle Rock Ventures LLC and Magnetic ERV LLC (sister companies). From 2002 to 2011, Jena led the hotel division of Bentall Kennedy LP (formerly known as Kennedy Associates Real Estate Counsel LP) as a senior vice president. During that time she oversaw the acquisition, development, financing, asset management, and disposition of over a $1.4 billion of hotel assets.

Prior to that, she was the Vice President of Acquisitions and Business Development for Noble House Hotels & Resorts, overseeing the acquisition and financing of over two hundred million dollars of hospitality projects. Previously, she was a Development Manager at Westin Hotels & Resorts, now part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. She has also worked for PKF Consulting, IHA, and Hyatt Hotels & Resorts.

Jena, who is a member of Urban Land Institute and sits on its hotel development council, received her BSBA in International Business & Marketing from American University. She is also an inaugural member of the Hospitality Investment Round Table (part of AHLA) and a LEED AP, which is a U.S Green Building Counsel Accredited Professional.

Ed oversees development activities in the Western United States and Canada. His responsibilities include project feasibility, site acquisition, right-to-build, construction planning and overall management of active projects. He has over 20 years of experience in development planning and management, corporate real estate and construction management, and was previously a Project Manager for Widewaters from 1996-2000. In the interim Ed was the Executive Director of Aliant Development Services and the Regional Manager of Corporate Real Estate for Whittman-Hart Inc. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech and holds a Bachelor of Science in Building Construction.

Stacy Marchesano is an attorney with Garvey Schubert Barer, P.C. She helps hospitality industry clients negotiate business agreements, find solutions to complex problems and bring transactions across the finish line. Stacy counsels clients through a broad range of real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions of commercial property and commercial leasing of restaurant, office and industrial space. Stacy also represents hospitality clients in owner-operator agreements and consulting relationships for branded restaurant concepts. Passionate about the emerging technologies and trends in real estate, Stacy particularly enjoys partnering with clients whose projects live at the intersection of innovation and real property.

“My People used to say, when a stranger appears at your door, feed him for three days before asking who he is, where he's come from, where he's headed. That way, he'll have strength enough to answer. Or, by then you'll be such good friends, you don't care.”

Bashar Wali is a founder, a father, and a hotel fanatic. He’s a pragmatist—hungry to experience life not as it is packaged and sold, but as it is. His vested interest in hospitality, culture, and design, is cut with curiosity of what’s possible, beyond the status quo.

Bashar is always looking for that spark—that perfect symmetry of an idea and its physical manifestation—to make human experiences as we know them, better. He’s the consummate Host of the Soirée—ever in pursuit of a shared humanity among friends, colleagues, and total strangers. This is perhaps his greatest gift: bringing together a group that’s more inspiring than the sum of its parts.

As founder and CEO of This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar draws upon expertise honed over a 30-year career in hospitality. An expert in the lifestyle space, Bashar is known for pushing limits in his philosopher-meets-hotelier kind of way. Whether helming the TEDx stage, hosting a Global YPO event, or collaborating on Clubhouse, Bashar’s message is unwavering: service is what you deliver, hospitality is how you make people feel.

Bashar has done every job in a hotel—from frying an egg to negotiating a deal—working for Starwood Hotels before leading acquisitions and development globally at Grand Heritage Hotels. Prior to launching This Assembly and Practice Hospitality, Bashar served as President/CEO of Provenance Hotels, where he remains a partner, for 15 years, growing the company from five to 15 hotels, 1,500 team members, and expanding the collection from the Pacific Northwest to an award-winning national brand, with annual revenue in excess of $150 million.

When Bashar isn’t traveling to 50+ countries and 45+ states, he’s home in Portland, Oregon with his wife and kids, dreaming up the hotels of tomorrow.

John Oppenheimer is Founder and Chairman of Columbia Hospitality. Columbia Hospitality operates over 100 properties in 12 states including hotels and resorts, residential, golf, distinctive venues, and restaurants and bars. Under John’s leadership, Columbia Hospitality has received countless awards in 2024 including: Fastest Growing Companies and Washington Best Workplaces (Puget Sound Business Journal), Family Business Award Honoree (Puget Sound Business Journal), as well as Best Company Work-Life Balance and Best Company Happiness (Comparably). In addition to launching Columbia Hospitality in 1995 (to manage Bell Harbor International Conference Center for the Port of Seattle), John has also founded five successful, private hospitality-related businesses.

John was a founding general partner of Seattle Hotel Group, the investment group that developed the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Seattle.

John currently sits on the following boards: Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Board, Smoke Tree Corporation, Four Seasons Seattle Homeowners Association, UW Center for Leadership Studies Advisory Board, Anthony’s Restaurants, Northland Properties, and Chelan Valley Farms. Examples of John’s past non-profit boards included Chair of the Woodland Park Zoo, Chair of YPO Gold, board member of 5th Ave Theater, among others. He served as a past member of the advisory board of Northern Trust. John was also recognized as a 2024 Director of the Year honoree and selected as a Power 100 honoree every year since 2019 by Puget Sound Business Journal.

Mitch Lund joined Fulcrum with a decade of experience in the commercial modular building industry where he was actively involved in leading teams through the entire lifecycle of custom modular construction projects across the US, including design/engineering, estimating, procurement, project management, manufacturing, and site supervision. With modular and offsite construction riding a tidal wave of success and media attention, involvement in $1B of modular projects, a nation-wide team of construction professionals from across all segments of the construction industry, and a decades-long track record of success managing construction risk on behalf of lenders, investors, and developers, Fulcrum is perfectly and powerfully positioned to help the real estate industry make informed decisions with its full range of Modular Risk Management services.

For more than two decades, Rebecca has directed the planning, architecture and interior design of experience-focused hospitality and multifamily residential projects throughout the U.S., Middle East and Asia. She specializes in the design and development of hotel and resort destinations as well as luxury and resort residential properties. Her ability to create rich design narratives through nuanced details leaves lasting impressions on guests and residents. Reflected in her design process and projects is an “aspirational authenticity” – taking shape as architectural moments that resonate with inhabitants’ attitudes and personalities, inspiring them to feel a profound connection with where they are living or staying. Prior to joining MG2, Rebecca was part of the architectural and interior design team responsible for the Bardessono Inn & Spa, a landmark project in California’s Napa Valley that became the first LEED Platinum luxury boutique hotel in the country.

Greg Duff founded and chairs the firm’s national Hospitality, Travel and Tourism group. Greg’s practice is directed at the variety of operations-oriented matters faced by hospitality and travel industry members, including management agreements, sales and marketing, distribution and e-commerce, procurement and technology. Greg serves as counsel and legal advisor to many of the hospitality industry's local, state and national trade associations and trade groups, including AH&LA and HSMAI. Prior to joining Garvey Schubert Barer, Greg served as Associate General Counsel at the Westin Hotel Company/Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Assistant General Counsel at Homegrocer.com/Webvan Group and General Counsel and VP of Development at Columbia Hospitality.

As Vacasa’s SVP of growth, Colin Carvey brings over 20 years of business development experience in the financial sector, having previously worked at HSBC, CapitalOne, and TransUnion. At Vacasa, Colin leads the growth team including the corporate development, marketing, partnerships, and organic sales teams to drive overall company growth and alignment.